Re: Help Centre - review counter

I am saddened to hear that someone has abused the Google review system to bring negative marks against you or your business.

While the Google My Business team here in this community cannot take action for you, I would like to provide some information to you that I hope does help with this unfortunate situation.

I would like to first point out that Google will only remove reviews that violate the Google Review Policies. In order for you to empower Google to assist you, please find the offending review and flag it. You can use this information to learn more about this process, along with instructions on how to flag it and what the review polices clearly state as violations.

Next, I would suggest that you respond to the false review with a very specific response. It is very important that you do not cuss and scream or attack the reviewer as this will only harm your reputation with prospective customers that read your reply. A bad review, whether real or fake, does far less harm than a bad reply to a review.

Please use this information from Google that discusses in detail how to respond. You can also simply copy & paste the following response:

“Hi, [insert reviewer’s name,]

We take these matters very seriously, and unfortunately, we have no record or recollection of any customer experience fitting this account, nor can we verify anything about your identity from your name in our records. Also, our staff did not experience any situation close to this, so we believe you have reviewed the wrong business. If you feel you were a customer of ours, we would like to investigate this issue with you, so please do contact us immediately."

Now I know this is not how you want to reply but it is the right way.

I must stress that if you cannot reply in a friendly & professional manner… do not reply at all. But not replying is not ideal, so put on your happy face and visit your happy space and present something eloquent to the world.

As I stated earlier, there is not much more I can do for you with regards to the fake review. Flag it, reply and leave the rest to the Google’s team of auditors.

Because of the high level of users with Google reviews, the audit can take several days or even some weeks to complete.

While you wait, work on getting any family or employees to flag the review and then move forward to gaining more 5-star reviews from your actual customers.